Space Mercenary Defense Force Review (PlayStation 5)

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Space Mercenary Defense Force Review, Defend against an alien invasion and take down the mother ship in joyously hectic roguelike style! Space Mercenary Defense Force is a tactical sci-fi action shooter where your primary objective is survival. Equip your ship’s directional module slots with various weapon technologies – explosive, defensive, beam, deployable, and more. Over 600 upgrades with branching advancement paths make each run unique depending on your strategic choices.

Space Mercenary Defense Force Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 201.6MB download size.
  • Platinum trophy.
  • You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
  • High-resolution fonts – on/off.
  • Nine ships to buy and unlock each with unique stats like health and speed. You can add a perk and change the ship skin.
  • Two game modes – classic, and challenges. Classic mode also has a secondary choice of turbo mode.
  • Survival gameplay.
  • Plays like a Vampire Saviours where all you do is equip weapons and move around, shooting is automatic.
  • A spinning wheel can be found and you press a button to win prizes.
  • Enemies drop exp tokens and collecting these will level you up and you pick one of four random upgrades.
  • The four weapons you choose on a run are also placed on your ship to your liking, you get four sides and you choose.
  • Challenge mode is set tasks and you don’t get a lot of enhancements.
  • Celestial modifiers are big game changers but you have to finish the game before they unlock.
  • Fun little mini-games crop up.
  • Simple controls.
  • Funny and unique upgrade choices like shrinking your ship or having massive scythes.
  • Big boss fights.
  • Random events can happen.

Space Mercenary Defense Force Review Cons:

  • You cannot remap the controls.
  • No tutorial.
  • The game is really slow even with a ship speed upgrade or ten.
  • A massive grind to get credits.
  • You have to unlock turbo mode.
  • The game takes place in a set area and has barriers/walls.
  • The cost to re-skin your ship is ridiculously high.
  • Depending on the area you fight in, your ship and enemies can get masked by the planet in the background.
  • The game is just not as addictive as other games in the genre.
  • Movement is sluggish.

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Space Mercenary Defense Force:

Official website.

Developer: Tom Paradise

Publisher: eastasiasoft

Store Links –

PlayStation

  • 7/10
    Graphics - 7/10
  • 6/10
    Sound - 6/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Length - 7/10
  • 6/10
    Fun Factor - 6/10
6.6/10

Summary

Space Mercenary Defense Force is a survival game that offers a decent graphical experience and is available for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The game has a download size of 201.6MB and offers a platinum trophy. It features high-resolution fonts that can be toggled on or off.

The game provides nine different ships to buy and unlock, each with unique stats like health and speed. You can also add a perk and change the ship skin. The game offers two modes: classic and challenges. The classic mode also has a secondary choice of turbo mode. The gameplay is similar to Vampire Saviours where all you do is equip weapons and move around, with shooting being automatic. There are also celestial modifiers which are big game changers, but they unlock only after you finish the game.

Enemies drop exp tokens and collecting these will level you up, allowing you to pick one of four random upgrades. The four weapons you choose on a run are also placed on your ship to your liking. There are funny and unique upgrade choices like shrinking your ship or having massive scythes.

The game includes a challenge mode with set tasks. There are also fun little mini-games that crop up. A spinning wheel can be found and you press a button to win prizes.

The controls are simple. However, you cannot remap the controls and there is no tutorial. The game is really slow even with a ship speed upgrade. The cost to re-skin your ship is high. Depending on the area you fight in, your ship and enemies can get masked by the planet in the background. The game is not as addictive as other games in the genre and the movement is sluggish.

Overall, “Space Mercenary Defense Force” offers a different take on a now saturated genre. We have had so many with so many of them being smooth and having a real hook and whilst Space Mercenary Defense Force does try new things, it doesn’t nail the main elements already perfected in other games and it just makes it sluggish and not that engaging.